5 Year Hall of Famers? Make your case

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Back in the day I loved Garvey, and so did everyone else (as a player anyhow). I still can't really take on board the disparity between his career stats (his baseball reference numbers are really underwhelming; they rank him the 50th best ever at IB which to me is absurd) and my perception of how good he was, and not just for a relatively short period. I guess the lack of walks really hurt some of his metrics.

Dave Parker is also pretty high on that list of disparity between my perception and the numbers.

BB Reference and Fangaphs try to fit everyone into the same formula, but sometimes that formula just fails. Garvey is one of those guys. Those sites over value walks, especially for middle of the line up guys. All Garvey did was expand the strike zone to get more hits, 200+ per season, and drive in runs, 100+ per season.

In theory getting on base and not making outs is good, but not always. Sometimes you need to risk making outs to drive in runs instead of letting them pitch around you and get a weaker hitter out. In the real world, Garvey's approach led to 5 NL Championships and 1 World Championship.

Garvey also gets punished for being a 1st baseman. He went a whole season without making an error, but they claim that his defense was worth less a replacement player. There is no way that someone setting a record for most consecutive errorless games is not better than any average player.

10 time All Star, 4 Gold Gloves, 1 MVP, 2 NLCS MVP, 2 AS MVP, 5 NL Champion, 1 World Champion. That is a lot of Fame, seems to fit in with Hall of Fame a lot better than some that are already there.